Chiara Carter The about-face of the state’s star witness in the embezzlement trial of anti-apartheid hero Allan Boesak might mean that the court has to grapple more with questions about “struggle accounting” and lax management than personal dishonesty. Until this week, former Foundation for Peace and Justice (FPJ) bookkeeper Freddie Steenkamp was the key accuser […]

Mungo Soggot Department of Trade and Industry department officials have been soliciting thousands of rands from the cream of South Africa’s exporters by demanding R10 000 cash cheques from companies keen to bring guests to a gala dinner. The November 26 banquet is supposed to be addressed by President Nelson Mandela, who is billed to […]

Review of the week : Miles Keylock There are several reasons why Janet Jackson’s Cape Town performance on her Velvet Rope Tour was the massive success it was. It’s been close on a decade since she emerged from brother Michael’s shadow and the Nineties has seen her constantly re(de)fining her musical and stage personae. In […]

Howard Barrell : Over a Barrel If ever a government feels the need to waste a large amount of money it can usually rely on its generals to show it how to do so. For there are few items as unproductive as military hardware or as ugly as rows of hangars, bunkers and huts scarring […]

Angella Johnson : View From a Broad They say that money can’t buy you love. Well, it can at least get you the body and face of your dreams. I had been considering cosmetic surgery for some time – nothing radical, mind you, just a little liposuction on the adipose tissue in my stomach. But […]

a ‘snowplough’ a few millionths of a millimetre wide. Michael Brooks reports As your eyes move across this text, you are performing a task that remains beyond the understanding of modern science. The simple movement in the muscles that control your eyes is still a mystery; inside the muscles, tiny proteins called myosins are doing […]

Ferial Haffajee : A Second Look I wrote this while bound in leg braces – so steadfast was the determination not to be knee-jerk. It is, therefore, a much considered and chewed-upon view that the Human Rights Commission’s proposed inquiry into the media is the worst news possible. It is a view not coloured by […]

Benjamin Pogrund Laurence Gandar, who died in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, on November 14, was an unlikely South African hero. Appointed editor of the Rand Daily Mail in Johannesburg in October 1957, nothing out of the ordinary was expected of him. Yet he transformed the newspaper into a vehement opponent of apartheid and gave hope of change […]

Sutracide Cameron Duodu : Letter from the North Nigeria’s political lexicography is one of the most colourful in the world. This is because Nigerian politicians delight in showing off during public speeches what they consider to be the English “grammar” they learned at school. But since this grammar was taught to them by people who […]

Mungo Soggot and Sechaba ka ‘Nkosi The Public Protector, Selby Baqwa, has tried to silence the Mail & Guardian, warning that it broke the law by writing about his role in the affairs of the Vaal Technikon. Baqwa has reported the M&G to the press ombudsman for the article and has referred the newspaper to […]